This week, the Internet was graced with two stunning images of trans woman transparency. Last Wednesday, Laverne Cox shared a picture of herself in a black mesh swimsuit, sans makeup, and on Monday, Caitlyn Jenner (formerly Bruce) revealed her Vanity Fair cover photo, featuring the retired Olympic athlete in all white lingerie. These images are beautiful, and inspirational, and represent years of work, and pain, and progress. But these images also reveal some things about how American culture expects a level of disclosure from women that we don't expect from men, and how trans women are held to an even higher standard.

Laverne Cox in black Glamzelle swimsuit. Laverne Cox's Instagram.

Let's start with the Caitlyn Jenner photo shoot. For some context: Caitlyn Jenner came out as trans in late April. After a brief but intense media storm, Caitlyn has appeared in an exclusive Vanity Fair interview to discuss her transition and her feelings about her past. The accompanying cover photo shows Jenner in streamlined white lingerie, her arms tucked demurely behind her back, a pose of total openness. The article itself focuses on how Caitlyn’s life prior to transition was characterized by lying: to herself, to her significant others, to her children, to the public. Caitlyn “doesn’t have any lies,” she says.

But the imagery says something else. Caitlyn is expressing her truth, but she's expressing it in a way that is carefully curated for public consumption. This doesn't seem to me like an accident. Caitlyn has been part of the Kardashian family since 1991: a family who knows how powerful, and profitable, feminine disclosure can be. This photo shoot is curated to show a stark contrast between the bad, lying Bruce Jenner and the honest, forthright Caitlyn. Her lingerie is white: the color of rebirths, virgin brides, initiates into secret orders.

This image is intended to banish other images: the shots of masculine-presenting Caitlyn as an Olympian, the images that America loved, that kept her tied to a self she couldn't stand. This image is intended to demonstrate Caitlyn's "viability" as a woman, because she's passing and she's beautiful. This image, shot by famously ambiguously-queer photographer-of-women Annie Leibovitz, is a masterful performance of gender and celebrity, packaged as naked truth. Caitlyn herself says in this video: "If you're going to come out... you really have to look the part, you have to look very feminine."

This is not to say that Caitlyn is lying. This is to say that Caitlyn is coming out into a society that is ready to accept some trans women: the ones who pass, the ones who are conventionally pretty, the ones who can afford the wardrobe, the makeup, the facial reconstruction. And she's also coming out into a society that demands a high level of disclosure from trans women about the size of their breasts, what their genital configuration is, what they've "had done," when they knew, why they waited. The Vanity Fair piece mentions Caitlyn Jenner relating to Monica Lewinsky's TED talk about public perception. Caitlyn is choosing to come out with as much armor as she can; that armor, perversely, means creating the illusion of nakedness. Of vulnerability. Because that's what a good woman is, right?

I don't know if this is my imagination, but it seems to me that she is doing something very radical. When I see her in the media, Laverne Cox is definitely creating a public performance, but hers is not all about openness. Instead, she's selective with what she's open about, and acknowledges that. Laverne Cox might pose in a swimsuit that's basically black censor bars set into mesh, but she refuses to discuss the details of her surgeries on television, because that, for her, is a boundary. Laverne Cox takes selfies without makeup, but also discusses makeup as a part of her job and her typical public face. Laverne Cox talks how "in certain lighting, at certain angles I am able to embody certain cisnormative beauty standards" because she wants people to acknowledge that photographs aren't representative of a whole person.

Laverne Cox's Time Magazine cover. Cox says that she doesn't want to just be known as a pretty woman. Via Time.

Laverne Cox isn't trying to be someone's perfect trans woman, a pinnacle of disclosure and openness and nudity. She seems more interested in getting into discussions about what people mean when they talk about beauty and openness. But that's a conversation that might be hard for Caitlyn Jenner to have right at this moment, when she's finally able to present the way she wants after a lifetime of waiting.

Some people are going to say that one of these strategies is the superior method for dealing with being trans in the public eye. Some people are going to think Laverne Cox is being cagey or that she's cutting herself down. Some people are going to think Caitlyn Jenner is desperate for either money or attention or both. But it's not that simple. Laverne has been publicly female for much longer than Caitlyn has, and has had more time to decide how to present herself publicly.

Caitlyn has said, "I didn't want to look like a man in a dress", demonstrating an intense awareness of the pressures placed on trans women to be overtly feminine. Via Vanity Fair.

The original ABC article mentions that Caitlyn Jenner has been talking to Laverne Cox, and that she'd like to be a larger part of trans advocacy, citing Cox, Janet Mock, and Carmen Carrera as her inspirations. "They made it easier for me," she said in a video released by Vanity Fair. "I hope with my honesty, I can make it easier for someone down the line." I think it's such a good thing that Caitlyn is taking her lessons from these women, who are not just trans women celebrities, but advocates and theorists too. I have a hard time imagining better teachers.

I imagine that as time goes on, Caitlyn Jenner's presentation and level of openness will shift around. She may or may not want more photo shoots in lingerie. She may or may not feel comfortable sharing the details of future surgeries, or decisions not to get them. If it turns out that Caitlyn Jenner's ideal life is a state of total openness and overt femininity, then she should have that. But if not, I hope that people can be okay with the idea that trans women, celebrities or no, don't have to embody feminine ideals in order to count.

Rose

7 Comments on this post

Thank you Rose! I also felt somewhat uncomfortable with all that carefully designed media campaign. And the images… You write so eloquently and keep things in proportion. For me those were mostly soft “drag queen” images, which for many may be the only image they know or accept of a trans woman (or the only acceptable outlet to others.)
I have posted this rant on another blog and also mentioned that as far as I know celebrity trans men are far more rare. Another commenter referred me to Chaz Bono, which made me realize that no one expected him to appear in his underwear on any magazine cover. The closest one I could find was that of him in a shorts and a t-shirt, and the main focus of the piece is weight loss. Although one of the lines says, “In 2010, he completed his female-to-male gender transformation,” there are no further details.http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/02/19/chaz-bono-shows-off-his-major-weight-loss/1930981/

I hate to say it, but welcome to being a woman. Working on your presentation is something we do, constantly. I admire Caitlyn Jenner, but she isn’t the new normal. Most trans women don’t have 100 grand to spend on top of the line facial feminization surgery, and don’t get the choice in how they present.

They don’t have Plastic Surgeons who “care” about them and manage their aftercare. I’ve had a breast augmentation myself, and I love my new boobs. But it cost me the better part of 20,000 dollars and afterwards my Doctor wouldn’t pick up the phone.

It’s not to say it isn’t great Caitlyn is doing so well, but in terms of access to help she’s doing it the easy way.

I wish natural born women were as welcome on the cover of Vanity Fair as Caitlyn at her age. If she hadn’t been Bruce Jenner, white Republican male and sports hero first, she wouldn’t be on that cover- ESPECIALLY not in lingerie!

I did not realize before this comment that Caitlyn Jenner is the oldest woman to appear on the cover of Vanity Fair. Cher was 64 when she appeared on the cover in 2010 (in a bodysuit and fishnets, no less), and Meryl Streep was 60 the year she appeared on the cover (which was also 2010). Elizabeth Taylor and Martha Stewart were 60 and 63 in 1992 and 2005, respectively. I’d say her age is definitely another milestone worth celebrating.

P.S. Rose may have to confirm, but I think the correct terminology now is “assigned female at birth.” After all, no one is born a woman.

Hi Cora,
First, thank you very much for writing such a nice, open and non-judgmental, blog on Caitlyn Jenner.
As to your question about gender assignment at birth, perhaps I can help. In general doctors do not need to assign a gender because the gender is obvious. However, there are relatively rare circumstances when the natural gender, as evidenced by the genitals, cannot be determined. This usually happens when the person is later identified as Intersex, a new term for the old hermaphrodite, or exhibiting both gender identifying markers.
Because “assigning” a gender at birth, when it is difficult to make that determination, can lead to huge problems later in life once that person begins to feel different from the assigned gender. Doctors have recognized this possibility and are not comfortable in making that decision.
Only recently Germany, as the first country in the Europe, now offers doctors a third choice when completing a birth certificate. They now can enter “indeterminate” as an alternative to male or female and thus allow the person to decide to which gender they belong when they are cognitively capable of doing so.